Ziffs to Shut Down Hedge Fund, WSJ Says

By Brendan Conway

The Ziff brothers are winding down the last large hedge fund which invests the family’s billions, Juliet Chung of the Wall Street Journalreports:

The billionaire Ziff brothers are shutting down the last multibillion-dollar hedge fund that invests their family fortune, one of the biggest such pots of money in the U.S.

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Dirk Ziff, of Ziff Brothers Investments, in 2008.

The three brothers, heirs to the wealth created by their grandfather’s magazine-publishing empire, are shutting the second of their two hedge funds and stepping away from the one-for-all, all-for-one investing style they followed for more than two decades, according to people familiar with their plans.

Dirk, Robert and Daniel Ziff, ages 50, 47 and 42 years old, respectively, are closing their London-based hedge fund after its veteran portfolio manager, David Fear, decided to strike out on his own, the people said. …

[T]hey are investing part of their fortune with Mr. Fear and other former employees of Ziff Brothers Investments, the family office that oversees their multibillion-dollar fortune. The brothers’ net worth is estimated by Forbes at more than $14 billion.

Chung also notes the Ziffs have been reducing their stake in Och-Ziff Capital Management Group (OZM) to less than 10%.

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Chris Dieterich has covered the U.S. stock market for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. He is a graduate of Regis University and the Missouri School of Journalism.